Improvement in locks



UNITED STATE-s PATENT OFFICE.

LUCIUS VOODRUFF, OF NEV BRITAIN, CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNOR TO THE RUSSELL StERWIN MANUFACTURING COMPANY, OF SAME PLACE.

IMPROVEMENT IN LOCKS.

Specilication forming part of Letters Patent No. 35,912, dated July 15,1832.

To aZZ whom/it may concern:

Be it known that I, LUcrUs WOODRUFF, of New Britain, in the county ofHartford and State of Connecticut, have invented anew and usefulImprovement in Locks; and I do hereby declare'that the following is afull, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had tothe accompanying drawings, making a part of this specification, inwhich- Figure 1 is an internal view of a lock with my improvementapplied to it. Fig. 2 isalso an internal view ol the same, viewed at theside opposite to that shown in Fig. l; Figs. 3 and 4, detached views ofthe hub of the catch or latch bolt; Fig. 5, a detached horizontalsection of the catch or latch bolt. Fig. 6 is a side view of the same.Fig. 7 is an end view of the same.

Similar letters of reference indicate correspending parts in the severalgures.

This invention relates to an improved lock of that class which areprovided with'reversible latch or catch bolts to admit of the lock beingapplied to either a right or left hand door without the necessity ofinverting the former.

The object ofthe invention is to obtain a reversible bolt which will notenhance the cost of construction above that of an ordinarylock,

' and at the same time not increase the thickness of the lock or renderit necessary to vary the usual proportions of the same in any degree,and also admit of being readily adjusted to suit the door to which thelock is to be applied.

To this end the invention consists in having the back part of the latchor catch bolt pro vided with two arms, which are parallel with eachother, butin different planes, and having the hub of the knobfarloorprovided with two projections or lugs, which are also `in differentplanes corresponding with the position of the arms on the latch or catchbolt, the ends of the arms of the latch or catch bolt being providedwith projections for the lugs of the arbor-hub to actagainst, and allarranged as hereinafter fully shown and described, whereby the latch orcatch bolt and also the hub may be reversed in position within the lock,so as to adjust the position of the bevel of the latch or catch bolt tosnit the door and operate precisely the same in either of the twopositions in which it may be placed.

. To enable those skilled in the art to fully understand and constructmy invention, I will proceed to describe it.

A represents the case of the lock, which is constructed with twofinished sides, so that either may be placed outermost when the lock isadjusted to the door.

B is the key-bolt of the lock, which may be arranged in the usual or inany proper way.

C is the latch or catch bolt, which is provided, as usual, with an outerbeveled end, a, as shown clearly in Fig. 5. The latch or catch bolt isprovided with a longitudinal slot, b, in which a spiral spring, c, isfitted, the outer end of said spring bearing against the front edge ofthe slot b, and the inner end bearing against a stump, d, in the case A.The spring is tted von a guide-rod, e, in the slot b, and

has a tendency to keep the latch or catch bolt Y C forced out from thecase A as far as it is designed to move. The back part of the latch orcatch bolt C has two parallel arms, e e', which are out of line witheach other or in different planes, as will be seen by referring to Figs.4 and 7, in which the planes are indicated by dotted lines ff. The endsof the arms e e are each provided with a projection,

g. These projections g g are at right angles with the arms e e', theprojections oi' one arm extending in an opposite direction to that ofthe other. Y l

D is the hub in which the arbor of the knob is fitted. This knob isprovided with two lugs, 7L h, which project from it at opposite pointsin two different planes, as shown in Figs. 1, 2, and 4, the dottedlinesffindicating said planes. The lugs h h are about at equal.distances from the ends of the hub D-ethat is to say, one lug is just asfar from the end of the hub which is nearest to it as the other lug isfrom the opposite end of the hub. The lugs h bear against theprojections g, which are in line with them, and when the knob is turnedthe latch or catch bolt will be operated thereby. 1

From the above description it will be seen that by withdrawing theknob-arbor from the hub D the latch or catch bolt and hub may be turnedand adjusted in the lock with either side facing the operator, for bothsides are precisely alike and'have the same bearingsurfaces, so that thelatch or catch bolt will move freely in either position. Hence the bevela may be reversed in position and the lock made to suit either a rightor left hand door without being` inverted.

The invention, being so extremely simple, does not involve anyadditional expense in construction; nor does the relative size orprojections of anyparts of the lock require special alteration for theadaptation of thc invention.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire tosecure by Letters Patent, is-

The parallel arms e c of the latch or catch bolt C, placed out of linewith each other or in l latch or catch bolt C in the case A, for the lpurpose specified.

LUCIUS VOODRUFF.

Witnesses:

A. M. VARD, M. J. WOODRUFF.,

